Paying the Piper
Word Count: 1026
Aloysious stood before the building where everything changed, no longer showing signs of life or family. The surrounding garden overgrew the edges of their boxes, spilling out and climbing over the statues that once had been home to many birds. The warm memories of family had grown cold, leaving behind the empty house. Every fibre of his being still hurt from the events that he long tried to bury. Eleven years had passed since the house had been inhabited as he had refused to take up residence there back then. The hallowed walls belonged to him the whole time whether or not he took advantage of it.
He reached out nervously and unlocked the door, the click of the lock turning echoed against the silence of the halls. Everything was still in the same place, covered in years of dust. Stirring it up caused him to go into a coughing fit as he made his way into the dark mansion. He took his handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it over his mouth so he could breathe without inhaling all the dust. One day he would come back here for good and clean the place up, but today there was a specific goal to be achieved.
Climbing the staircase proved slightly difficult in the dark, once on the second floor he used his lighter to light one of the candelabras that hung from a fixture on the wall. It helped slightly but still left him feeling uneasy in the empty mansion. Every hallway and room was a testament to times long passed, with memories both good and bad sealed under the cold and uncaring passage of time. The only please he would enter was his great grandfather's work room, he did not need to relive more of his past. This was a quest for stepping forward into the future.
The door was locked still from before his namesake had died. With a bit of work, he used his lock picking set to open the door. The air was stale within the workshop, all the tools and machinery were still there as well. He had half a thought that his family would have raided the place to sell off anything of value long ago. It was a nice surprise to see that nothing had gone missing. His great grandfather often sat for days in this room, working on various instrument for a living even as he taught and raised future generations of the Sharp family.
Aloyious pulled the blue crystal from inside his vest, placing it on the desk as he searched for the tools required to make it into a flute. Various hand drills and chisels would be needed, as well as something to make a mouth piece out of. It took a bit longer than he had hoped to find all the tools but, it had allowed for most of the dust to settle again. He returned to the worktable and set everything down, looking over the materials and tools to make sure he had everything.
Working by candle light, Aloyious began the painstaking process of carving the crystal into a better suited shape for the flute. The excess material would be tossed back into the rift later. He had watched this same process unfold for many years, but felt somehow fulfilled to be the one doing it now. Once he was satisfied with the blank, he began to drill each of the holes in the flute to expand its range. The mouth piece was made using a solid plug, closing off the end near the main mouth hole to help stabilize the sound. Holding it to the side, he blew into the mouth piece and played a few notes. It still sounded unsettling to him, he may have to wear earplugs while playing for longer periods of time.
Back to the table it went as he continued on to drill more holes, until he reached the goal of 12. It would have a better range and more options for composition. Something tickled in the back of his mind, it was almost as if he had done this before. As if he was meant to follow in the musical crafting footsteps his great grandfather had taken so long ago. Once he felt sure enough of the base design, he began to delicately etch a pattern into the surface of the flute. It was just a simple wavy pattern near the top and bottom. He paused for a moment and pulled out another small handkerchief from his pocket, breathing deeply before he unwrapped it to reveal a small feather. It was something to remind himself of what could have been if a different path had been taken.
He was better than that now, to protect was better than to destroy. It had taken awhile to swallow the fact that he would never be able to go to such lengths of darkness. Swallowing hard, he sat for a moment in the darkness and thought of the likely hood of his plan coming to fruition for a peaceful draining process. Would negotiating against basic nature to weed out the weak be even possible? Thinking back to what Melody had gone though, he wondered if he was something she would now fear. Could he even look her in the face knowing what he was aligned to do in the beginning?
Peacefulness in the abyss was his goal in this war, he was going to try his damnedest to protect everyone. Hopefully, he would have like minded allies in this goal. He would lead civilians away into a trance of dreams to protect them from the necessary draining that would soon follow. In the end, he wanted the people of this city to lose only energy and not their lives. If he could lead them away from the pain of the world and into a world of dreams, he would give up anything. With a ginger touch, he picked up the finished flute and left the mansion in a hurry. There were things to test and results to record. Hopefully the cost of being a piper would justify the results.
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